Nasa Pulls Plug On Heir To Shuttle

Costs, Technical Issues Doom Lockheed's X-33

CAPE CANAVERAL -- It was touted as a revolutionary steppingstone to cheaper and safer spaceflight in the 21st century. It will be remembered as one of the Space Age's costliest boondoggles instead.

NASA announced Thursday it was shutting off funding for the $1.3 billion X-33 project, the most expensive and ballyhooed effort to develop a possible space shuttle successor. The decision effectively erases any hope of building a replacement for the costly, aging shuttle fleet by the end of the decade as once planned.

The embattled program was out of money and facing formidable engineering challenges. NASA had exhausted $912 million of taxpayers' funds budgeted for the effort. Prime contractor Lockheed Martin and its industry partners had contributed an additional $357 million.

Lockheed Martin hoped to complete the project with money from NASA's Space Launch Initiative, a $4.5 billion program aimed at reducing technical risk for next-generation spaceships. But the company's bid was rejected on Thursday.

A second experimental vehicle under development for NASA -- the $205 million X-34 rocket plane -- also got the ax. Orbital Sciences Corp. was building three X-34 test vehicles to demonstrate new technologies for future reusable spacecraft.

Instead, NASA will enter contract negotiations with other, still unnamed, companies to develop concepts for new launchers. The goal: low-cost ships to deliver satellites to orbit or carry crews to the international space station.

"We have to make good decisions fiscally and be responsible in picking those activities that can give us the greatest benefit," said Art Stephenson, director of NASA's Marshall Spaceflight Center in Huntsville, Ala. "Flying these vehicles turned out not to warrant the magnitude of the cost."

A DAY AFTER CUTBACKS

The news came a day after the Bush administration announced major cutbacks in the space station project. NASA officials insisted the X-33 decision was unrelated and not influenced by the White House.

"There was no discussion at any time about the administration's views," Stephenson said. "It was totally based on an objective review."

The wedge-shaped X-33 craft was a half-scale prototype of a lightweight reusable launcher. It was designed to fly without jettisoning spent fuel tanks or boosters, then return to Earth and land like an airplane. Success would have revolutionized access to space by dramatically slashing launch costs. Up to 15 suborbital test flights were planned from Edwards Air Force Base in California to military airfields in Utah and Montana.

The dream was that X-33 would pioneer the technologies needed for Lockheed Martin to invest $8 billion in a full-scale fleet of privately owned and operated Ven- tureStar vehicles. NASA would contract for rides as a paying customer. However, the project was hit with technical setbacks almost from the beginning.

Three new technologies were considered crucial to X-33's success: heat-resistant metallic tiles, advanced rocket engines and super-lightweight fuel tanks. Development of the tiles and engines went relatively smoothly. But a graphite composite material used to manufacture the fuel tanks wouldn't bond properly.

LIGHTWEIGHT TANKS NEEDED

The lightweight tanks had been billed as the breakthrough technology the project hinged on, essential to making a follow-on Venture- Star ship light enough to reach orbit without booster rockets. But after repeated manufacturing problems, one of the tanks failed during pressure testing in November 1999 at Marshall Spaceflight Center, NASA's lead center for rocket development. A decision was made to scrap the unproven composite material for heavier but proven aluminum.

In 1999, a report by Congress' General Accounting Office found the project was over budget, behind schedule and in danger of not meeting its original goals. The first launch, originally scheduled for 1999, was postponed to mid-2002.

The contract for X-33 was set to expire Dec. 31 without a single test flight. NASA and Lockheed Martin negotiated a 90-day extension until the end of this month so the company could bid for Space Launch Initiative funds. Lockheed Martin's investment already had soared from $212 to $356 million. And with the company in the midst of a $2.8 billion cost-cutting effort -- much of it aimed at commercial space operations -- corporate officials weren't anxious to spend more.

"The federal government has already disbursed to Lockheed Martin the money it felt was necessary to build X-33," Rohrabacher said. "These companies are not interested in change and the future. They're interested in keeping the present, which is how they pay their bills."